Alabama

Conference USA fights for stability -- again

As of now, this is the geography for Conference USA starting in 2013-14. (Photo illustration from Conference USA)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Conference USA expansion, take six.

Only a few conferences can afford to be picky when and who they add. For everyone else, the mission becomes survival.

So it is for Conference USA, which added five members for 2013-14. Some carry potential. Others draw shrugs. Fingers are crossed that the TV money -- driven by football -- will be there by adding schools with a 1-10 football record against current C-USA teams since 2007.

The wealthy sucking up the poor remains a time-honored tradition in college sports.

Jon Solomon is a columnist for The Birmingham News. Join him for live web chats on college sports on Wednesdays at 2 p.m.

These men coached coached football or basketball in C-USA seven years ago: Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Bob Huggins, Mike Anderson, Tom Crean, Larry Eustachy, Bobby Petrino, Jim Leavitt, Gary Patterson, Mark Dantonio and Art Briles. The next C-USA may produce rising coaches and programs, but that depth is long gone.

C-USA continues to follow the WAC's footsteps as a conference willing to go anywhere and try anything in the name of stability. Florida International, Charlotte, Texas-San Antonio, North Texas and Louisiana Tech are the latest experiments.

Once 2013-14 rolls around, 20 percent of the Football Bowl Subdivision schools will have at one time played in C-USA, which was only established in 1995. By 2013-14, the WAC will likely be dead, having seen 21 percent of FBS schools come and go since the league was born in 1962.

The WAC was ahead of its time in 1996 by going to 16 members before it crumbled two years later because of financial, geographic and structural issues. As C-USA develops some sort of relationship with the Mountain West, they both would be wise to remember history.

"I'm for the numbers. I think that gives us stability," UAB Athletics Director Brian Mackin said. "I think the presidents are still going to discuss the Mountain West-Conference USA potential merger."

You can't blame C-USA for thinking outside the box. The big boys, some of them also desperate, dictate the terms.

The Big East reached way out of its footprint for Boise State and San Diego State while adding four from C-USA to shore up a BCS automatic-qualifying status that won't exist. The Big East could lose millions of dollars in new playoff revenue distribution.

C-USA notes that the metro area population of the five new members is nearly 18 million. "The initial read was that television was receptive to a lot of these markets," Mackin said.

Yet the heart of college sports, even as conferences grow larger while chasing TV dollars, remains regional. It's about rivalries and intriguing games, both of which require time to develop.

Charlotte, which must sprint to start football in 2015, has a past relationship with UAB to build upon. UAB averaged 6,400 fans in 17 home basketball games against Charlotte from 1980 to 2005.

"We need to connect schools and divisions in a way that makes sense for the fans, for the rivalries, but more importantly for the student-athletes," C-USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky said.

It's no given C-USA will stay with two divisions. But if FIU and Charlotte join the East in a two-division model, the average drive to UAB's regular opponents would increase from seven to eight hours. Mackin thinks it's still possible Old Dominion, located 12 hours away, will join C-USA.

Among the 13 future C-USA members currently set, UAB was the fourth-biggest spender on sports ($25.1 million) in 2010-11. The Blazers trailed East Carolina ($31 million), Rice ($29.8 million) and Tulsa ($29 million).

Sun Belt members Florida International ($24.6 million) and North Texas ($22.4 million) were close. Texas-San Antonio football, coached by Larry Coker, averaged 35,521 fans in 2011, a record by a first-year program.

"No one thought Central Florida would be where they are now when they entered Conference USA," Mackin said. "I see UAB in that way. The upside is tremendous for us."

The cycle continues. Smaller conferences get cherry-picked, leaving behind pieces to pick up alongside dreams of one day becoming a small fish swimming in a big pond, too.